Excerpt Transcript

Background:
Mr. Bryant had mentioned during a discussion about his family
history of education that his grandfather had been a slave; he expands
here on some of his grandfather's experiences. He begins his narrative by
explaining that "he wrote about it"--the slave hardships. Mr. Bryant
refers to his grandfather's diary, now in his possession, and from which
he draws his information. Mr. Bryant's grandfather, after obtaining his
freedom, later attended college, received brick masonry training, and went
on to have a successful masonry career.
Transcript:
And in fact, he wrote about it. He was a slave and named a farm in
uh, Lewisburg, North Carolina, which is maybe 30 miles northeast. And uh,
he tells that uh, he was kidnapped and carried somewhere, I think to, to
Granville county, I believe, to Oxford.
And that the, and that uh, his mother and father were separated by sale.
His mother was sold to somebody in Apex; his father was sold to somebody
in Oxford. Until that, when the war was over, the Yankees went to Oxford
and found him and carried him back to, to, to Lewisburg. And at that time
he was freed. And he went back to Oxford and found his father.